Seems like a long, hot Summer is upon us – hundred degree Fahrenheit days some weeks ago, then 90-degree days for what seemed like a month or so, and now daytime temperature ups and downs from seventy to ninety degrees. NO WONDER our garden plants are confused! Did I mention the lack of any kind of sky-moisture?
I have talked with SO many experienced gardeners about this year’s (dare we call it “unusual”?) Spring and Summer weather, and it’s effects on our garden plants, and therefore our food: no flowers or fruit on medium and large-sized tomatoe plants, late potatoe flowers, no bulbing on kohlrabi plants, really weird second-year seed stalks inside first-year cabbage heads, and more. It’s one thing to “roll with the punches”, and another to question our gardening sanity.
Out in the garden at Rancho McGinty, it’s “Three-W” time: water, weed, watch, and I’m really glad we use primarily drip irrigation – at least MOST of the expensive water is going where it will do the plants some good, instead of spraying into the hot air, only to evaporate before hitting the garden soil.
The garlic harvest this year was a B-minus kinda year: really good crop of “Musik”, “German Red”, “Polish Red”, and (in it’s second year, here) “Doukhobor” varieties were the clear winners. The other varieties sorta fizzled out, and produced small (less than golf ball sized), broken bulbs, or entirely disappeared in the garlic patch.
The “Late Dutch Flat” cabbage was excellent, while the “Emerald Cross” cabbage was enjoyed by our chickens, but not by us.
Chores in the garden now include keeping the compost piles wet, placing flat impervious objects (bricks, old dinner plates, plant pot saucers, etc.) under the emerging melons and squash fruit (to keep soil contact rot to a minimum), and hilling or mulching those escaping small, green potatoes.
If your raspberry plants have finished producing delicious fruit (vanilla bean ice cream and “Doyle” blackberry milk shakes – YUM!), now is a good time to cut out the spent canes (the ones that produced fruit this year), and leave the green or purple/blue canes that will produce fruit next year. Be sure to thoroughly discard or carefully burn those spent canes, as they may contain evil cane borers.
GARDEN CALENDAR:
On the 13th of September, our local garden club will meet in Camden Grange and Community Center (7 Camden Road, Elk, WA) at 7 P.M. for an evening of shoring up our sagging garden spirits, sharing good gardening tips and information, and enjoying snacks and drinks. Please join us for a class with two presenters on the topic of starting and growing plants through the Winter. Club member Lorelei will talk about her experience with “Winter seed sowing”, and club member Steve will talk about starting seeds in small food service foam cups. Maybe we’ll have strong, viable plant starts ready for the 2023 gardening season – I like “cheap, easy, and no equipment purchases necessary” kind of projects!
You can check on our club’s doings at our website: www.elk-camdengardenkeepers.blogspot.com, or at our Facebook page, under “Elk-Camden Garden Keepers”.
Be careful out there – drink lots of water, take your salt tablets, and hide indoors when you can.
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